Recovery from medium error on tape on which data and metadata are to be stored by using medium to medium data copy

ABSTRACT

A copy export application implemented in a computational device receives a request to perform a copy export operation of data and metadata to a selected tape in a tape library coupled to the computational device. The copy export application copies the data from the computational device to the selected tape. The copy export application determines a medium error on the selected tape while copying the metadata from the computational device to the selected tape, subsequent to completion of the copying of the data from the computational device to the selected tape. The copy export application sends a request to a tape control application to replace the selected tape by a new tape and copy the data from the selected tape to the new tape. The copy export application copies the metadata to the new tape.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The disclosure relates to a method, a system, and a computer programproduct for recovery from medium error on tape on which data andmetadata are to be stored by using a medium to medium data copy.

2. Background

In certain computing environments, a tape library may be coupled to acomputational system, wherein the computational system may manage thetape library. The tape library may have a plurality of tape drives,wherein tapes may be removed and inserted into one or more of theplurality of tape drives.

Customer data may be written to the tapes inside the tape library. Thecomputational system may provide a copy export operation that allows acopy of customer data to be removed and taken offsite for disasterrecovery purposes. To ensure availability of full backup data in case ofa potential disaster, customers may periodically execute copy exportoperations on the computational system, wherein in certain situationsthe periodic execution of the copy export operation may occur on a dailybasis.

During a copy export operation, the computational system writes themetadata (e.g., the database for managing storage and the customer data)corresponding to the customer data at the end of each tape that is to beexported, so that later on at a disaster recovery computational system,the metadata may be fully restored with the customer data and thecustomer data is ready for use.

SUMMARY OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Provided are a method, a system, and a computer program in which a copyexport application implemented in a computational device receives arequest to perform a copy export operation of data and metadata to aselected tape in a tape library coupled to the computational device. Thecopy export application copies the data from the computational device tothe selected tape. The copy export application determines a medium erroron the selected tape while copying the metadata from the computationaldevice to the selected tape, subsequent to completion of the copying ofthe data from the computational device to the selected tape. The copyexport application sends a request to a tape control application toreplace the selected tape by a new tape and copy the data from theselected tape to the new tape. The copy export application copies themetadata to the new tape.

In additional embodiments a tape control application implemented in thecomputational device receives the request from the copy exportapplication, and performs a tape to tape move of the data from theselected tape to the new tape. The tape control application ejects theselected tape, replaces the selected tape with the new tape, and sends avolume serial number of the new tape to the copy export application.

In yet additional embodiments, the copy export application determineswhether the volume serial number has been received within apredetermined amount of time, in response to sending the request to thetape control application to replace the selected tape by a new tape andcopy the data from the selected tape to the new tape. The copy exportapplication performs the copying of the metadata to the new tape, inresponse to determining that the volume serial number has been receivedwithin the predetermined amount of time.

In further embodiments, the copy export application indicates a failureof the copy export operation, in response to determining that the volumeserial number has not been received within the predetermined amount oftime.

In yet further embodiments, the data is customer data, wherein customerdata is data that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer. Themetadata is a database to manage the customer data. The copy exportoperation is successful only in response to both the customer data andthe database being transferred from the computational device to a singletape, wherein the single tape is one of the selected tape and the newtape.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring now to the drawings in which like reference numbers representcorresponding parts throughout:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computing environment thatincludes a computational device coupled to a tape library in accordancewith certain embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart that shows first operations performed bya copy export application implemented in the computational device, inaccordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart that shows second operations performed bya tape control application implemented in the computational device, inaccordance with certain embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart that shows third operations implementedin the computing environment of FIG. 1, in accordance with certainembodiments; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a computational system that showscertain elements that may be included in the computational device ofFIG. 1, in accordance with certain embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, reference is made to the accompanyingdrawings which form a part hereof and which illustrate severalembodiments. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized andstructural and operational changes may be made.

Delay in Exporting Data and Metadata into Tapes

It may not always be possible to accurately predict the actual availablecapacity on a selected tape, in order to ensure that there is enoughstorage space available on the tape to write metadata after the data hasbeen written to the tape. The computational device may record the amountof data that is written to the selected tape on each successful write ofcustomer data and calculate the available blank space on the tape bysubtracting the total amount of data written from the selected tape'snative capacity that is obtained from the medium specification of theselected tape. When the calculated available blank space is close to thesize of current metadata, the computational device may stop writingadditional customer data on the selected tape and start to write themetadata on the selected tape. However, if the portions of the tape aredegraded, the actual capacity of the tape is less than the nativecapacity. This may result in an incorrect estimation of the availableblank space and the computational device may be unable to append thefull metadata because of the lack of space on the tape. If this happens,the copy export operation on this tape will fail because the tape doesnot have full metadata information. Customers may not export any datawritten on this tape unless the customers start another copy exportoperation to re-export the data, or perform a manual recovery by movingthe data from the failed tape to a new tape.

In certain situations customers may initiate the execution of the copyexport operation once a day. If a tape fails on this once a day copyexport operation, the data may not be exported until the next copyexport operation that occurs on the next day. If a manual recovery isperformed by moving the data from the failed tape to a new tape, thecustomer may have to start another copy export operation to re-exportthe remaining data on the new tape

The failed tape may also be used to recall all of customer data on thefailed tape back into the computational device cache and migrate thecustomer data to a new tape. Since this data needs to be migrated totape again following the regular data migration scheduling, exportingthe data once again may require another copy export operation.

Timely Recovery on Tape Failure

In certain embodiments, when a medium error is encountered duringmetadata backup, the computational device may generate a notificationfor operator intervention to notify the customer that a medium error hasbeen encountered and the failed tape with a given serial number will beejected later on. The computational device may also start a tape-to-tapedata copy (reclamation) to move all of the customer data from thisfailed tape to a new tape. At the end of successful reclamation, thecomputational device may append the metadata to the new tape. If themetadata backup is successful, the tape is ready for export.

In certain embodiments, the recovery is automated and does not requirecustomer or field support to manually invoke a recovery. The automatedrecovery can be done in the same copy export operation when the failureoccurs, so that the customer can get data exported on schedule. There isno need to re-run copy export on these data. During the recovery,customer data on the failed tape is moved to a new tape directly viatape to tape data copy, without being recalled back into the cache andhaving to wait to be migrated later on to a new tape from the cache. Thedegraded or bad tape may be ejected at the end of recovery automaticallyand a notification may be sent to the customer so that this tape is notused for copy export any more.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computing environment 100 thatincludes a computational device 102 coupled to a tape library 104 inaccordance with certain embodiments. The computational device 102 maycomprise any suitable computational device, including those presentlyknown in the art, such as, a personal computer, a workstation, a server,a mainframe, a hand held computer, a palm top computer, a telephonydevice, a network appliance, a blade computer, a storage server, astorage controller, etc. The tape library 104 may comprise any suitabletape library known in the art. One or more tapes 106 may be present inthe tape library 104.

The computational device 102 has a copy export application 108, a tapecontrol application 110, data 112, and metadata 114. In certainembodiments, the data 112 is customer data, wherein customer data isdata that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer. In certainembodiments, the metadata 114 is a database to manage the customer data.

The copy export application 108 performs a copy export operation,wherein the copy export is successful only in response to both the data112 and the metadata 114 being transferred from the computational deviceto a single tape (i.e., only one tape) stored in the tape library 104.For example, in certain embodiments the data 112 is copied to the tape106 (the copied data is shown via reference numeral 116 within the tape106), and metadata 114 is copied to the tape 106 (the copied metadata isshown via reference numeral 118 within the tape 106). Empty space 120may also be present in the tape 106 after the data 112 and the metadata114 have been copied to the tape 106. The tape control application 110is capable of ejecting a tape from the tape library 104 and forperforming tape to tape move of data, wherein tape to tape move of dataresults in a movement of data from one tape to another. In alternativeembodiments the data 112 may be split among a plurality of tapes,wherein each tape includes the metadata 114.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of first operations 200 performed by thecopy export application 108 implemented in the computational device 102,in accordance with certain embodiments.

Control starts at block 202 in which the copy export application 108initiates the writing of data 112 on a selected tape 106. Controlproceeds to block 204 in which the copy export application 108determines whether the writing of all of the data 112 on the selectedtape 106 is successful. If so, control proceeds to block 206 in whichthe copy export application 108 initiates the appending of metadata 114on the selected tape 106.

Control proceeds to block 208 in which the copy export application 108determines whether there is a medium error on the selected tape whileappending the metadata 114 on the selected tape 106, wherein a mediumerror may be caused as a result of inadequate empty space to write themetadata 114 and/or via degradation of the selected tape 106. If thereis a medium error then the copy export application 108 sends (at block210) a notification to an operator that the selected tape should bereplaced and then proceeds to automatically request (at block 212) thetape control application 110 to eject the selected tape 106 and replacethe selected tape 106 with a new tape.

Control proceeds to block 214 in which the copy export application 108determines whether a volume serial number for the new tape is receivedfrom the tape control application 110 within a predetermined period oftime (i.e., there is a timed wait by the copy export application 108).If the volume serial number of the new tape is received within thepredetermined period of time then (“Yes” branch from block 214) the copyexport application 208 again initiates the appending of the metadata butthis time on the new tape (the data has already been transferred to thenew tape by the tape control application 110 while replacing theselected tape with the new tape). If at block 208 there is no mediumerror (“No” branch from block 208, then the copy export application 108completes (at block 216) the exporting of metadata on the new tape (orselected tape in certain iterations) and completes the copy exportoperations.

If at block 204, the copy export application 108 is unsuccessful (“No”branch from block 204) in writing all of the data on the selected tapethen the copy export operation fails (at block 218) on the selected tape106. The copy export operations also fails (at block 218) on theselected tape 106 if the volume serial number is not received (“No”branch from block 214) by the copy export 108 from the tape controlapplication 110.

Therefore, FIG. 2 illustrates certain embodiments in which the copyexport application 108 may cause the copying of both data 112 andmetadata 114 on a selected tape or on new tape that replaces theselected tape, in response to a medium error while copying the metadatato the selected tape.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of second operations 300 performed by atape control application 110 implemented in the computational device102, in accordance with certain embodiments.

Control starts at block 302 in which the tape control application 110receives a request from the copy export application 108 to eject aselected tape 106, wherein a medium error was generated while metadatawas being written to the selected tape 106. The tape control application110 performs (at block 304) a tape to tape move of the data previouslycopied on the selected tape 106 to a new tape.

Control proceeds to block 306 in which the tape control application 110ejects the selected tape 106 which is now empty because the data of theselected tape 106 was moved to the new tape in block 304. The tapecontrol application 110 replaces (at block 308) the selected tape 106with a new tape in the tape library 104 and then sends (at block 310)the volume serial number of the new tape to the copy export application108.

Therefore, FIG. 3 illustrates certain embodiments in which the tapecontrol application 110 performs a tape to tape move of the datapreviously copied to a selected tape 106 to a new tape, wherein all themetadata corresponding to the data could not be copied to the selectedtape 106 because of a medium error. The tape control application 110sends the volume serial number of the new tape to the copy exportapplication 108 after replacing the selected tape with the new tape.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart that shows third operations 400implemented in the computing environment 100 of FIG. 1, in accordancewith certain embodiments.

Control starts at block 402 in which a copy export application 108implemented in a computational device 102 receives a request to performa copy export operation of data 112 and metadata 114 to a selected tape106 in a tape library 104 coupled to the computational device 102. Thecopy export application 108 copies (at block 404) the data 112 from thecomputational device 102 to the selected tape 106. The copy exportapplication 108 determines (at block 406) a medium error on the selectedtape 106 while copying the metadata 114 from the computational device102 to the selected tape 106, subsequent to completion of the copying ofthe data 112 from the computational device 102 to the selected tape 106.The copy export application 108 then sends (at block 406) a request to atape control application 110 to replace the selected tape 106 by a newtape and copy the data from the selected tape 106 to the new tape.

A tape control application 110 implemented in the computational device102 receives (at block 410) the request from the copy export application108, and performs (also at block 410) a tape to tape move of the datafrom the selected tape 106 to the new tape. The tape control applicationejects (also at block 410) the selected tape 106, replaces (also atblock 410) the selected tape 106 with the new tape, and sends (also atblock 410) a volume serial number of the new tape to the copy exportapplication 108.

The copy export application 108 determines (at block 412) whether thevolume serial number has been received within a predetermined amount oftime, in response to sending the request to the tape control application110 to replace the selected tape 106 by a new tape and copy the datafrom the selected tape to the new tape. The copy export application 110then performs (at block 414) the copying of the metadata 114 to the newtape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has beenreceived within the predetermined amount of time.

In certain embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-4, the recovery for medium erroris automated and does not require customer or field support to manuallyinvoke a recovery. The automated recovery can be done in the same copyexport operation in response to a failure, such that customers mayexport data on schedule. There is no need to run copy export operationsonce again to export the data and metadata that caused a failure whilecopying to a selected tape that was substituted by a new tape. Duringthe recovery, customer data on the failed tape is copied to a new tapedirectly through tape to tape data copy, without being recalled backinto the cache of the computational device and having to wait later tobe migrated to a new tape from the cache. The degraded or bad tape maybe automatically ejected at the end of recovery and a notification maybe sent to the customer so that the selected tape is not used for copyexport any more.

The above embodiments may not only be implemented for computationaldevice copy export medium error recovery but also may be applied to anyapplication that requires appending metadata on a sequentially accessedstorage medium. For example, writing deduplicated data on a tape mayrequire the writing of some metadata on the tape. The metadata is notnecessarily restricted to a database. The metadata may be any metadatathat is required for using customer data on the storage medium. Themedium error during metadata writing is not necessarily restricted tothe medium capacity degradation. It can be any error caused by mediumrelated errors.

Additional Embodiment Details

The described operations may be implemented as a method, apparatus orcomputer program product using standard programming and/or engineeringtechniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combinationthereof. Accordingly, aspects of the embodiments may take the form of anentirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (includingfirmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodimentcombining software and hardware aspects that may all generally bereferred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore,aspects of the embodiments may take the form of a computer programproduct embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) havingcomputer readable program code embodied there.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java*, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider). *Java is a trademark or registered trademark of SunMicrosystems, Inc.

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram that shows certain elements that maybe included in the system 500 in accordance with certain embodiments.The system 500 may comprise the computational device 102 and may includea circuitry 502 that may in certain embodiments include at least aprocessor 504. The system 500 may also include a memory 506 (e.g., avolatile memory device), and storage 508. The storage 508 may include anon-volatile memory device (e.g., EEPROM, ROM, PROM, RAM, DRAM, SRAM,flash, firmware, programmable logic, etc.), magnetic disk drive, opticaldisk drive, tape drive, etc. The storage 508 may comprise an internalstorage device, an attached storage device and/or a network accessiblestorage device. The system 500 may include a program logic 510 includingcode 512 that may be loaded into the memory 506 and executed by theprocessor 504 or circuitry 502. In certain embodiments, the programlogic 510 including code 512 may be stored in the storage 508. Incertain other embodiments, the program logic 510 may be implemented inthe circuitry 502. Therefore, while FIG. 5 shows the program logic 510separately from the other elements, the program logic 510 may beimplemented in the memory 506 and/or the circuitry 502.

Certain embodiments may be directed to a method for deploying computinginstruction by a person or automated processing integratingcomputer-readable code into a computing system, wherein the code incombination with the computing system is enabled to perform theoperations of the described embodiments.

The terms “an embodiment”, “embodiment”, “embodiments”, “theembodiment”, “the embodiments”, “one or more embodiments”, “someembodiments”, and “one embodiment” mean “one or more (but not all)embodiments of the present invention(s)” unless expressly specifiedotherwise.

The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having” and variations thereofmean “including but not limited to”, unless expressly specifiedotherwise.

The enumerated listing of items does not imply that any or all of theitems are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “a”, “an” and “the” mean “one or more”, unless expresslyspecified otherwise.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Onthe contrary a variety of optional components are described toillustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the presentinvention.

Further, although process steps, method steps, algorithms or the likemay be described in a sequential order, such processes, methods andalgorithms may be configured to work in alternate orders. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described does notnecessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in thatorder. The steps of processes described herein may be performed in anyorder practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device/article (whether or not theycooperate) may be used in place of a single device/article. Similarly,where more than one device or article is described herein (whether ornot they cooperate), it will be readily apparent that a singledevice/article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle or a different number of devices/articles may be used instead ofthe shown number of devices or programs. The functionality and/or thefeatures of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more otherdevices which are not explicitly described as having suchfunctionality/features. Thus, other embodiments of the present inventionneed not include the device itself.

At least certain operations that may have been illustrated in thefigures show certain events occurring in a certain order. In alternativeembodiments, certain operations may be performed in a different order,modified or removed. Moreover, steps may be added to the above describedlogic and still conform to the described embodiments. Further,operations described herein may occur sequentially or certain operationsmay be processed in parallel. Yet further, operations may be performedby a single processing unit or by distributed processing units.

The foregoing description of various embodiments of the invention hasbeen presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It isnot intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the preciseform disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in lightof the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention belimited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claimsappended hereto. The above specification, examples and data provide acomplete description of the manufacture and use of the composition ofthe invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, theinvention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.

1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a copy export applicationimplemented in a computational device, a request to perform a copyexport operation of data and metadata to a selected tape in a tapelibrary coupled to the computational device; copying, by the copy exportapplication, the data from the computational device to the selectedtape; determining, by the copy export application, a medium error on theselected tape while copying the metadata from the computational deviceto the selected tape, subsequent to completion of the copying of thedata from the computational device to the selected tape; sending arequest, by the copy export application, to a tape control applicationto replace the selected tape by a new tape and copy the data from theselected tape to the new tape; and copying, by the copy exportapplication, the metadata to the new tape.
 2. The method of claim 1, themethod further comprising performing by a tape control applicationimplemented in the computational device: receiving the request from thecopy export application; performing a tape to tape move of the data fromthe selected tape to the new tape; ejecting the selected tape; replacingthe selected tape with the new tape; and sending a volume serial numberof the new tape to the copy export application.
 3. The method of claim2, the method further comprising: determining, by the copy exportapplication, whether the volume serial number has been received within apredetermined amount of time, in response to sending the request to thetape control application to replace the selected tape by a new tape andcopy the data from the selected tape to the new tape; and performing thecopying, by the copy export application, of the metadata to the newtape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has beenreceived within the predetermined amount of time.
 4. The method of claim3, the method further comprising: indicating, by the copy exportapplication, a failure of the copy export operation, in response todetermining that the volume serial number has not been received withinthe predetermined amount of time.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein: thedata is customer data, wherein customer data is data that isspecifically reserved to be used by a customer; the metadata is adatabase to manage the customer data; and the copy export operation issuccessful only in response to both the customer data and the databasebeing transferred from the computational device to a single tape,wherein the single tape is one of the selected tape and the new tape. 6.A system, comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory,wherein the processor performs operations, the operations comprising:receiving, by a copy export application implemented in the system thatcomprises a computational device, a request to perform a copy exportoperation of data and metadata to a selected tape in a tape librarycoupled to the computational device; copying, by the copy exportapplication, the data from the computational device to the selectedtape; determining, by the copy export application, a medium error on theselected tape while copying the metadata from the computational deviceto the selected tape, subsequent to completion of the copying of thedata from the computational device to the selected tape; sending arequest, by the copy export application, to a tape control applicationto replace the selected tape by a new tape and copy the data from theselected tape to the new tape; and copying, by the copy exportapplication, the metadata to the new tape.
 7. The system of claim 6, theoperations further comprising performing by a tape control applicationimplemented in the computational device: receiving the request from thecopy export application; performing a tape to tape move of the data fromthe selected tape to the new tape; ejecting the selected tape; replacingthe selected tape with the new tape; and sending a volume serial numberof the new tape to the copy export application.
 8. The system of claim7, the operations further comprising: determining, by the copy exportapplication, whether the volume serial number has been received within apredetermined amount of time, in response to sending the request to thetape control application to replace the selected tape by a new tape andcopy the data from the selected tape to the new tape; and performing thecopying, by the copy export application, of the metadata to the newtape, in response to determining that the volume serial number has beenreceived within the predetermined amount of time.
 9. The system of claim8, the operations further comprising: indicating, by the copy exportapplication, a failure of the copy export operation, in response todetermining that the volume serial number has not been received withinthe predetermined amount of time.
 10. The system of claim 6, wherein:the data is customer data, wherein customer data is data that isspecifically reserved to be used by a customer; the metadata is adatabase to manage the customer data; and the copy export operation issuccessful only in response to both the customer data and the databasebeing transferred from the computational device to a single tape,wherein the single tape is one of the selected tape and the new tape.11. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising:a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program codeembodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured toperform operations, the operations comprising: receiving, by a copyexport application implemented in a computational device, a request toperform a copy export operation of data and metadata to a selected tapein a tape library coupled to the computational device; copying, by thecopy export application, the data from the computational device to theselected tape; determining, by the copy export application, a mediumerror on the selected tape while copying the metadata from thecomputational device to the selected tape, subsequent to completion ofthe copying of the data from the computational device to the selectedtape; sending a request, by the copy export application, to a tapecontrol application to replace the selected tape by a new tape and copythe data from the selected tape to the new tape; and copying, by thecopy export application, the metadata to the new tape.
 12. The computerprogram product of claim 11, the operations further comprisingperforming by a tape control application implemented in thecomputational device: receiving the request from the copy exportapplication; performing a tape to tape move of the data from theselected tape to the new tape; ejecting the selected tape; replacing theselected tape with the new tape; and sending a volume serial number ofthe new tape to the copy export application.
 13. The computer programproduct d of claim 12, the operations further comprising: determining,by the copy export application, whether the volume serial number hasbeen received within a predetermined amount of time, in response tosending the request to the tape control application to replace theselected tape by a new tape and copy the data from the selected tape tothe new tape; and performing the copying, by the copy exportapplication, of the metadata to the new tape, in response to determiningthat the volume serial number has been received within the predeterminedamount of time.
 14. The computer program product of claim 13, theoperations further comprising: indicating, by the copy exportapplication, a failure of the copy export operation, in response todetermining that the volume serial number has not been received withinthe predetermined amount of time.
 15. The computer program product ofclaim 11, wherein: the data is customer data, wherein customer data isdata that is specifically reserved to be used by a customer; themetadata is a database to manage the customer data; and the copy exportoperation is successful only in response to both the customer data andthe database being transferred from the computational device to a singletape, wherein the single tape is one of the selected tape and the newtape.
 16. A method for deploying computing infrastructure, comprisingintegrating computer-readable code into a computational device, whereinthe code in combination with the computational device performsoperations, the operations comprising: receiving, by a copy exportapplication implemented in the computational device, a request toperform a copy export operation of data and metadata to a selected tapein a tape library coupled to the computational device; copying, by thecopy export application, the data from the computational device to theselected tape; determining, by the copy export application, a mediumerror on the selected tape while copying the metadata from thecomputational device to the selected tape, subsequent to completion ofthe copying of the data from the computational device to the selectedtape; sending a request, by the copy export application, to a tapecontrol application to replace the selected tape by a new tape and copythe data from the selected tape to the new tape; and copying, by thecopy export application, the metadata to the new tape.
 17. The methodfor deploying computing infrastructure of claim 16, the operationsfurther comprising performing by a tape control application implementedin the computational device: receiving the request from the copy exportapplication; performing a tape to tape move of the data from theselected tape to the new tape; ejecting the selected tape; replacing theselected tape with the new tape; and sending a volume serial number ofthe new tape to the copy export application.
 18. The method fordeploying computing infrastructure of claim 17, the operations furthercomprising: determining, by the copy export application, whether thevolume serial number has been received within a predetermined amount oftime, in response to sending the request to the tape control applicationto replace the selected tape by a new tape and copy the data from theselected tape to the new tape; and performing the copying, by the copyexport application, of the metadata to the new tape, in response todetermining that the volume serial number has been received within thepredetermined amount of time.
 19. The method for deploying computinginfrastructure of claim 18, the operations further comprising:indicating, by the copy export application, a failure of the copy exportoperation, in response to determining that the volume serial number hasnot been received within the predetermined amount of time.
 20. Themethod for deploying computing infrastructure of claim 16, wherein: thedata is customer data, wherein customer data is data that isspecifically reserved to be used by a customer; the metadata is adatabase to manage the customer data; and the copy export operation issuccessful only in response to both the customer data and the databasebeing transferred from the computational device to a single tape,wherein the single tape is one of the selected tape and the new tape.